When the hands went over my eyes, I panicked. Thrashing like a dolphin in a fishing-net, I tried to scream – only this time my voice just wouldn’t come.

‘Get off!’ I panted, trying to get a grip on the hands over my eyes, my hands all slippery with the expensive soap. My flailing arm caught the full glass on the bath’s edge, sending it smashing to the marble tiles, champagne fizzing everywhere. ‘Please,’ I pleaded croakily, ‘please, Joseph, please let me go.’

As suddenly as those hands had been placed there, they were gone again. I slipped down, half-submerged, choking, fighting for my breath, and then, gathering my strength, I sprang up in the bath, sending water slopping out of the side, and turned, utterly vulnerable in my nudity, to face –

Seb.

He was grinning at me. He was actually grinning.

‘For Christ’s sake!’ I howled, leaping out of the bath and grabbing a huge white towel to cover myself with. ‘What the hell are you doing?’

‘I’m really sorry, Maggie.’ He held his hands up in supplication. ‘I was just being silly.’

‘Silly?’ I stared at him, nonplussed.

‘I didn’t mean to scare you, babe.’ His smile was fading.

‘Well you bloody well did scare me. God, Seb. You terrified me.’ My heart was beating so fast I thought it might explode. ‘I thought you were trying to drown me.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous. I was just messing around.’

I pushed past him into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed for a minute. My skin was all red from the hot water; I felt dizzy and disoriented from the heat of the room, unsure what had really just happened.

‘Maggie,’ he followed me, looking contrite, ‘I’m sorry, I should have thought. It was just a joke, honestly.’

‘Was it? Or were you trying to drown me?’ I stared at him. I suddenly felt completely exposed. How well did I really know this man? I looked around for my clothes.

‘Drown you?’ He began to look annoyed as I slipped my bra on. ‘Are you kidding, babe? This isn’t bloody Lynda la Plante. Why the hell would I want to do that?’

I stared at him. It did sound ridiculous now he said it. ‘Well, all right, not drown me, exactly –’

‘Well, what exactly?’ His dark eyes were full of something I couldn’t read. He looked confused. My anger began to dissipate.

‘Maybe – just hurt me then,’ I suggested, milder now.

‘For Christ’s sake! Are you joking?’

‘Do you see me laughing?’

‘Maggie,’ he took a tentative step towards me, ‘Maggie, I am sorry, really, but –’

‘What?’

‘I’m a bit worried about you, actually.’

‘Why?’

‘You just seem so – jumpy, all the time. And what’s happened to your poor head?’